When You Value Yourself, Nothing Else Matters.

Don’t you just LOVE this word? Doesn’t this word conjure feelings of anger? How about happiness? Or maybe a feeling like building, manipulating or fumbling a case? Or what about tucking our tails between our chronic trembling legs running down a manhole hiding everything in range of vision while clutching onto our rosary of justification? I don’t know about you, but when I take off the “m,e, n, t,” I find the word “Judge” to be painfully ugly.

Still, does it stop me from judging? Or what I call prescreening or filling in what I believe is a profile based on age, skin color, style, gender or education? Does judging a person make one smarter or stupider? Does it keep us safe? Or immobile with our guard? Or do we find wisdom in it? Are judgements the same as opinions? Could the case of the person being judge be faulted by facts? How much are we allowed to pin on a person when in the end it can all be a matter of perspective?

I’ve been burned once.

And I don’t mean like the one time at band camp during the age of 15 where I came silently into contact with gonorrhea. I mean, burned as in Cast Away from friends, groups, associates and even work because I believe in stating however careful or blatant the policy I live by: Honesty. (For a story greater in detail which is along the topic of this one. Read here.) Now for the life of me (and I hate when I say this ->), but I understand and I don’t understand why the next person can’t accept my principles since I enjoy maintaining my codes: Morals, Loyalty, Friendship and Respect to name a few?

Honesty has allowed me to be confident and clear with who I am in my skin and within my conscious. Not to be mistaken with who I want or wish to be, presently or approaching. Cheerlessly, my reliance level isn’t well received by others as they grow hate for my unintentional means of arriving which makes them feel uncomfortable or threaten with their already firing insecurities. What do you know? One of the infamous questions I get is: “How do you do it?” And it’s simple really. If you’re honest with yourself and others, your integrity becomes invincible. All doubts diminish as they’ll light richly with truth because your words and actions are aligned within the universe frequency.

Anything outside of honesty, living by a set of morals and practicing everyday challenges of being self-aware I want nothing to do with. I have a friend who says, “Penn you have to learn how to accept people.” But how can I learn to accept people when they don’t agree and welcome themselves first? So, how will they in turn welcome me? If the person lies to themselves than this will mean they’ll undoubtedly lie to me. And why would I want to be involved with such brainlessness?

I never found it scary, nor will I excuse myself from saying the truth. Promises are flimsy, waiting to be annihilated like the common people. But, my words alone are my bond. I want them crimeless, reeking of finesse and raging guts just how I treat my Training. Rather than being the Average Joe and feeling I’m better off speaking higher than what I can display my character. I wonder, if these people sincerely believe they can get away with this disgraceful behavior while keeping someone as special as me in their life at the same time?